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FOG! Chats With Cartoonist Jaimie Hernandez About His Book, ‘Queen of The Ring: Wrestling Drawings 1980-2020’

For the past 40 years, acclaimed graphic novelist Jaime Hernandez has been creating a Love and Rockets-adjacent world ― set in the heyday of 1960s and ’70s women’s wrestling and lucha libre! ― with an entirely separate cast of characters who have aged and evolved: the beautiful and brutal Bettie Rey, the I.F.W. Pacific Women’s Champion ― a.k.a. Golden Girl ― as well as former champions Pantera Negra, Miss Kitty Perez, and many more. 

This best-of book spotlights the women who are often ignored in pro wrestling in 125 full color illustrations: pin-ups, action shots, fake wrestling magazine covers, all presented in a deluxe hardcover that echoes the lucha libre magazines of the 1960s. Hernandez also discusses the work in an interview with fellow cartoonist Katie Skelly.

Jamie took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss the Queen of The Ring, his influences, and the mythology of wrestling,

* * * * * *

FOG!:  Congratulations on the book. Queen of the Ring is beautiful.  Do you remember what initiated your love of women’s wrestling?

Jaime Hernandez: Oh, I was turned on by women as a little kid, and they’re just funner to draw than the males. Pretty simple.

One of the things that’s remarkable is the book feels almost like a behind-the-scenes history of the sport, with the fake magazines and illustrations that show the passage of time and the multi-generations. You initially were doing all these illustrations for yourself? What was the genesis of turning this material into a book?

It was my editor, Katie Skelly. She suggested it. I had always had in the back of my mind that maybe one day these illustrations would be seen by the public, but she kind of sparked the idea, and she asked me if she could edit it, and I said, “sure.”

One of the many engaging aspects of the book is that in many ways, the reader can truly appreciate your process. The large black areas look like they’re filled with Sharpie and many of the illustrations are in color pencil and creating a very tactile quality. Do you enjoy the freedom of making a drawing which tells a story with single image and then bringing that energy back to your narrative work?

The thing is, I never thought these things would be seen. These were just for my own jollies, and so just creating these single images was just something I wanted to do. I didn’t think of where it was going to go or if it was going to be edited or published or what. This was just for me, you know? And I’ve been doing it so long that it just became this kind of thing I was doing alongside Love and Rockets, but I never thought that it would get out there.

With Love and Rockets, you and your brothers created one of the most influential and beloved indie comics of all time. You guys are pretty young when you started the book. At the time, were you thinking of comics as a career? Or was it just something cool to do? And like, did you think that you would still be doing it decades later?

I was hoping I would. I kind of didn’t know what else to do with my life. All I knew was drawing comics, and when we did our own, it worked pretty quickly. You know, we got published, and so I didn’t want to look back at anything else.

The book shows off in many of your illustrations, one of my favorite aspects of your work in general, you’re ability to create the illusion of movement with a single image. You’ve always been known for drawing both realistic anatomy for women and depict characters physically interacting with one another. Is this instinctive to you? Or is it something you developed and have continued to focus on throughout your professional career?

It’s pretty natural stuff. If I’m gonna do a single image, it’s got to tell a lot of story; even if it’s just a single image, so you have to put all the action in one single piece. So if I’m having a woman whip the other into the turnbuckle, you’ve got to have the action and know where they’re going, like, on the cover (of the book). It was just something I learned while drawing comics.  When writing my comics, I had to tell a lot of stories and use just their face, with what their expression was. It’s the same thing with the book; even if these particular drawings were not for planned for others to see, I still wanted to tell a story in the image, and it pretty much, you know.

You mentioned the cover. Online, I’ve seen an alternate cover that was reminiscent of a wrestling magazine.  Why did you guys change it?

That was just a mock-up because the publishers needed as one of of their coming attractions. So they whipped out a cover pretty fast, and we didn’t have time to like, look over, say five covers, and pick which one we like the most. So that it’s is just not actual cover kind of thing.

You utilize women’s wrestlers in both Whoa Nellie and Penny Century.  I’m not a huge wrestling fan but what I find interesting about I have friends a lot with very similar point of view, regarding wrestling and superheroes. You know, they both have good guys and bad guys, and often elaborate mythology and storylines and secret identities and colorful costumes. Do you agree with theory that wrestlers and superhero share the same appeal?

No, no, not really. It just is what it is. I guess I get more entertainment out of the mythology of wrestling than I do superheroes. You know, I kind of outgrew them as a kid. You know, I don’t hate superheroes, but…

Just not your thing.

It’s just not anymore.

When you discovered comics, I know that you and your brothers gravitated towards Archie and Dennis the Menace. Were those the most influential type of work that you were into?

We had a stack of comics that we had for years and years; decades; and the ones I kept going back to were those because they had particular artists that appealed to me, and were better storytellers than others. It spoke to me more than the superhero thing because in the Archie Comics, believe it or not, but Dennis the Menace comics; these were normal people doing normal life stuff.  I knew how to draw somebody socking another person and I knew how to draw someone flying; That was the easy stuff.  Trying to make characters move, and interact was what captured me, you know when Love and Rockets was starting. So those old non-superhero comics had to try harder to entertain you because they didn’t have the trappings.

Do you still revisit that material?

Once in a while. I got my own little collection that I rebought when I got into comics going into shows and stuff. I got to buy my own collections; you know, create my own collections.

Is there anyone whose work you’re passionate about now or are you just kind of don’t follow comics?

I don’t follow comics as closely as I used to.  I’ll see someone who’s a really good illustrator, but I’m not interested in what they’re drawing. I find someone who’s not that trained classically, but they’re the better storyteller; different ones here and there. But just the older I am, I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and a lot of the fire is gone, and I mostly just concentrate on what I’m doing.

Well, I think that’s a common thing for a lot of people. You can’t be a fan and a creator. I think a lot of times your influences are basically other comics versus life or other aspects of the world.

Sure, and a lot of my influences came from old movies; that was another thing. It wasn’t just comics. So my upbringing was a third comics, a third movies, and a third real life,

I drew from all of those. I learned how to make them all work.

Do you have any planned upcoming projects that you’re working on?

Oh, just the next issue of Love and Rockets. I finish one, and I do the next. I’m going to do as long as I can.

How far ahead with Love and Rockets do you plot out your stories?  Or do you just take it issue by issue?

Issue by issue, but a lot of the characters that I know so well, I can see what they’re going to do in the future. But it’s kind of more like, these people’s normal lives. It’s like, Okay, what are you doing next? Oh, you have a kid that’s going to school, or oh, you got a new job or something like that. You know, and that’s what helps me.

We’ve now come out of over a year of quarantine. I know you’re a pop culture fan. What did you geek out over?

Oh, books, mostly just concentrating on the comic. Mostly life didn’t change for me as much as a lot of people because I’m always home drawing anyway.

Queen of the Ring: Wrestling Drawings by Jaime Hernandez 1980-2020 is available now

 

 

 

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